The Divide Between Bullying and Conflict

Being rude is when someone is not trying to intentionally hurt the other person. It isn’t a repetitive behavior, and there is not an imbalance of power. For example, Judy asked Martha if she could borrow a pencil. But Martha explained that it wasn’t her pencil, she borrowed it from another friend, so she didn’t want to let Judy use it.

Being mean is when someone is trying to intentionally hurt the other person but they are usually nice, and there is no imbalance of power. For example, if Kyle told Mark that he was a terrible baseball player who should never try out for the baseball team, then Kyle is being mean to Mark.